1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to: an apparatus and method of assembling a head unit in which a plurality of droplet ejection heads as represented by an ink jet heads, can be stably and accurately assembled into a single carriage, an apparatus and method of positioning liquid droplet ejection heads, and an apparatus and method of fixing the liquid droplet ejection heads; as well as an apparatus and method of manufacturing a liquid crystal display device, a method of manufacturing an organic electroluminescence (EL) device, a method of manufacturing an electron emission device, a method of manufacturing a plasma display panel (PDP) device, a method of manufacturing an electrophoretic display device, a method of manufacturing a color filter, a method of manufacturing an organic EL, a method of manufacturing a spacer, a method of manufacturing a metallic wire, a method of manufacturing a lens, a method of manufacturing a resist and a method of manufacturing a light diffusion member, all of these methods being performed by using the above-described head unit.
2. Description of Related Art
In the conventional printer, or the like, in case a plurality (a multiplicity) of liquid droplet ejection heads are required, each of the liquid droplet ejection heads is respectively held by a head holding member, and is further mounted on a single carriage. A plurality of liquid droplet ejection heads are thus arranged to be handled as a head unit together with the head holding member and the carriage.
In case the liquid droplet ejection heads are assembled into the head holding member, positioning (aligning) and fixing with screws are performed manually with the help of a microscope, or the like. In case the head holding member with heads is assembled into the carriage, the carriage is provided with pins, or the like, for positioning the head holding member so that the head holding member can be set and fixed to the pins, or the like.
In this kind of liquid droplet ejection heads, minute (extremely small) liquid droplets can be selectively ejected from the nozzle array. Therefore, they can be applied to the manufacturing of color filters for the liquid crystal display devices, organic electroluminescence (EL) display devices, or the like, and are also expected to be applied to apparatuses for manufacturing various electronic devices, optical devices, or the like.
When this kind of applied technologies are considered, aside from the performance of the liquid droplet ejection heads themselves, a high accuracy is required of the positioning accuracy (assembling accuracy) of the nozzles (nozzle array) within a plane (surface), as well as that positional accuracy of the carriage which is a prerequisite of the foregoing accuracy. In addition, depending on the liquid, or the like, which is an object to be ejected from the heads, the lifetime of the liquid droplet ejection heads becomes shorter. Therefore, frequent replacements of the liquid droplet ejection heads must also be taken into consideration.
When the above-described points are considered, with the conventional liquid droplet ejection heads (head units) to be mounted on a printer, the accumulation of the accuracy of each part determines the overall accuracy. Therefore, there is automatically a limit to stably maintaining a high positioning accuracy. In addition, in the manual assembling work, there is a problem in that the work is complicated and that the reliability becomes poor.
This invention has an object of providing an apparatus and method of assembling a head unit in which a plurality of droplet ejection heads can be stably and accurately assembled into a single carriage, an apparatus and method of positioning liquid droplet ejection heads, and an apparatus and method of fixing the liquid droplet ejection heads; as well as an apparatus and method of manufacturing a liquid crystal display device, a method of manufacturing an organic electroluminescence (EL) device, a method of manufacturing an electron emission device, a method of manufacturing a plasma display panel (PDP) device, a method of manufacturing an electrophoretic display device, a method of manufacturing a color filter, a method of manufacturing an organic EL, a method of manufacturing a spacer, a method of manufacturing a metallic wire, a method of manufacturing a lens, a method of manufacturing a resist and a method of manufacturing a light diffusion member, all of these methods being performed by using the above-described head unit.